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Saturday, December 10, 2016

Cape Town 7s: Eagles Beat Russia, Through To Quarterfinals

The Eagles are through to the medal quarterfinals after beating Russia 26-17 in their final pool play match. Although the end result was closer than the U.S. would have like they controlled most of the match and showed a lot of the same strong form they had earlier in the day. Next up for the team will be Scotland at 5:38 a.m. et/2:38 a.m. pt.

As expected the Eagles got off to a bright start against Russia wanting to put up a few scores to seal the match. Neither team helped themselves early and the Eagles put themselves in a hole when Martin Iosefo was sent to the bin. However, even down a man the Eagles did well to push down the pitch and find Danny Barrett out wide who rolled over yet another defender for a try. The conversion was off and the Eagles led 5-0 with three minutes left. The Eagles soon added another try as they once again stayed patient and this time found Steve Tomasin for the score. With the conversion the Eagles led 12-0.

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Russia weren't going to go away easy and from a chip and chase they scored a nice try just before halftime to cut the deficit to give at 12-7. The Russian momentum would only last so long as out of the half the Eagles came back flying with a wonderful try from Perry Baker who outlasted several Russian defenders.

Baker soon picked up another try. Danny Barrett scooped up the loose ball and after some work by Matai Leuta Baker was in for the score. Just like that the Eagles were up 26-5 with just a few minutes to go. Russia did score two late tries that Chris Brown won't be happy with but it was enough to give the Eagles the much needed result.

Now the team can concentrate on playing Scotland tomorrow and making the medal round. After last week's disappointing showing against Scotland the Eagles will be primed to make amends.